Slow beginning but Ended with MIracles

Hello Everybody!!

I hope you all have had a great week and thank you for the letters, I really appreciate it.

This week was pretty good but it started off pretty slow during the day time. Our nights have been pretty busy though. The last couple of days we have been teaching 4-5 lessons each day which is really good since harvest is starting. Hopefully this week we will continue seeing miracles like that.

A miracle that happened on Saturday was that we finally got to talk to a family we have been trying to meet for 2 months. They have only lived in the US for about a year and they had grown up catholic. In mexico they had a business so they didnt have much time for studying the bible but when they got here, some more time was available for religion. She started to notice that what the bible said and the catholic church taught were not matching up and she stopped going. They had super good questions and it seems like they really want to learn about the gospel. We are going back over next saturday to teach them again. Unfortunately thats the only day we can catch the whole family. We are super excited to keep teaching them.

The language is coming along nicely. Gospel terms come to me in spanish before english now. It gets easier to learn new words and to pronounce them. I still struggle sometimes because I want to say something one way but I have to say a different way because I forgot the right words. With time everything gets better.

Sacrament meeting yesterday was really good. A youth that just got baptized a few weeks ago passed the sacrament for the first time. Then the bishopric talked about missionary work in the ward. They were definitely trying to light a fire under the members to start opening their mouths and finding people for us to teach. The bishop also extended some goals for the ward that are pretty bold. The ward baptismal goal for the year was 8 and we have 7 right now but he wants to double the goal to 16 for the year. Then he also challenged the ward to prepare 200 names for the temple and have it done by the end of the year. The last challenge was to read the book of mormon by the end of the year. I was really impressed with how bold those goals are and hopefully the ward will jump on board with it. Also our ward missionary leader asked him to introduce a calendar for the members to sign up to be available to go to lessons with us. Hopefully we will start seeing some more progress from this.

I just want to say that the Lords work is going forth and its amazing to be a part of it. I know that many blessings come from serving a mission and at the same time there are great blessings from helping the missionaries around you. I challenge all of you to look for opportunities to share the gospel with your friends and family. It will bless their lives as well as your own.

I know this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration and that his successors are called of God as well. I know this because I know the Book of Mormon is true.

I hope that you all have a great week and always pray for missionary experiences and ways that you can find people for the missionaries to teach.

Elder Young

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Transfer Week!

Hello everybody!

Thanks everyone for the emails and letters.

This week was really good and it was transfer week. Our trio got split up, so we are back to 2 again. There are Hermanas in Umatilla now which is a bit different but its really good. My companion also got made the District leader, which just means that he helps the Spanish missionaries here to achieve their goals and gives them training.

On friday we had a really good day of teaching. We were busy pretty much from when we left the house until about 8:00 unfortunately the last hour was a bit of a bust. The next couple of days were rough though. We did do a role-play for general stake priesthood meeting to help out the ward mission leader and ward missionaries know what  good correlation meeting looks like. Hopefully it was able to give them some direction.

It's exciting to be a missionary but the time goes by soo fast! This week and month just seemed to fly by! The month is already half over and it feels like it just started. I suggest to anyone that is on the fence about going on a mission, GO. It will be the best thing you ever do. You learn so much in such a little time about everything. You learn how to work with others, to listen and study and most importantly how to recognize the spirit. It is an amazing opportunity to serve and focus on the Savior for 2 years.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Young

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Transfer calls and County Fair

Hello everybody!

Thank you everyone that sent me letters and emails. I appreciate it, its nice to hear how others are doing.

This week was kind of slow because of the county fair. Everyone was gone on Saturday because it was the last day and the weekend. We also got transfer calls on Saturday night. Elder Hall and I are staying here in Hermiston while Elder Hammond is getting sent to Boardman. We will also be getting Hermanas in Umatilla. It will be fun to have more sister missionaries in the zone.

Spanish has been really fun to learn. It gets easier every week but there are always challenges that come up. Sometimes there are people that talk differently than I am used to or they talk faster or quieter. Everyday is a learning opportunity.

I just want to share that I know the church is true and that Joesph Smith was a true prophet. He was called of God to restore the true church. The evidence of this restoration is the Book of Mormon. By reading and praying about it, we come to find out for ourselves that God's work has not ceased on the earth and continues to reveal his gospel to prophets today.

Thank you for your support and prayers and have a great week.

Elder Young

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

County Parade

Hello everybody!

This week was pretty good but a little slow. We are still covering a really large area but its fun to get to know more people. This weekend we will be getting transfer calls so it will go back to normal next week sometime.

This weekend Hermiston had its County Parade and we got to be in it! We walked with a 55 Chevy Coup which was pretty cool. There about 7 of us missionaries and we passed out about 30lbs of candy and a bunch of pass along cards. It was crazy how many people were there! Of course it was almost the whole county that went to it. Someone was telling us that there was about 200 floats. Also it was a pretty long parade but I'm not sure how long it was. The rest of the night was just about impossible to find anyone at home because they were still trying to get home themselves since traffic was crazy.

The week was pretty good but it had some slow moments. This next week will be hard to find people because the County Fair will be starting. Hopefully it won't hurt us too bad for work.

I just want to say the watermelons here are awesome! Its harvest time and our fridge is pretty full of watermelon and we get it just about everywhere but that doesn't matter because they taste so good! Something interesting we tried last night at an investigators house was Agua de Coco. Pretty much it was coconut juice with pieces of pulp too. We were so full trying to eat a plate of watermelon and a big cup of Agua de Coco.

It has been a lot of fun serving here so far.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Young

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.